The lingering doubt remained in Gojo's mind as to what had happened with Grisella in the past. However, Grisella didn't talk much on that night and fell asleep early.
The next day after waking up he noticed that Grisella had calmed down a lot. He would ask her at some point he thought to himself. They left Nereis soon, their next destination being the town of Alaman. On the way, as they rode Grisella approached him.
" Well, I guess my behavior yesterday may have shocked you. " she said.
" Yes, it was rather unique since I haven't seen you behave like that before. " said Gojo. He was well aware of the kind of incidents that caused this. He had seen Yuji Itadori in pretty similar circumstances. However, he hadn't pay much attention to them in his previous life. He was more focused on solving the problems causing them. But in this life he had to take this seriously. He didn't know how to approach it though.
" Okay, then let me tell you the story since you don't know. " said Grisella.
" You, don't have to tell me if you don't want to. " said Gojo.
" Nope, I need to share it now, I must confront my past. " said Grisella and started her story.
" It was just another normal evening, we I mean, my mother, father and I were traveling on a horse cart. I was talking to my mother. Her smiling face, I can still remember it vividly. As darkness started to approaching the horse cart slowed. I heard my father and mother talking about stopping at a nearby settlement. Suddenly the horse cart shook wildly and got upturned. I was and started crying. Soon fire started engulfing the cart. It seemed that it was all over for me. The flames almost reached me and burnt a small portion of my right upper arm. " Grisella folded her sleeves up and showed a small burn mark on her right upper arm just below her shoulder.
She then continued " So, I thought it was over for me. Then I heard someone calling my name from behind me. When I turned around and saw that in a distance my mother was crawling and looking around for me. Half of her face was burnt. So I crawled towards her. Then she grabbed me and guided to an exit from below the cart. As we got out from the mess, outside there were sounds of men screaming and an ongoing battle. However, soon my mother grabbed me and started running into the forests.
For a long time we ran without stopping. The darkness had enveloped us, I couldn't see a thing. Still we ran and ran. After sometime, my mother collapsed on the ground exhausted. When I asked what had happened to her. She covered my mouth and told me to keep quiet. Soon, I heard people's voices coming from nearby bushes and there was the shine of torches coming from that direction. Thankfully, no one managed to spot us. A small drizzle followed as those people retreated.
I called out to my mother but she seemed to have fallen asleep. So, I kept quiet and also fell asleep. The next morning, a woodcutters managed to find us. That's how I came to the orphanage. As for my mother, I was later told that she had passed away that night, succumbing to her injuries. They had also found a burnt down cart a little far away and alonside two badly charred bodies so they couldn't be identified. ". Saying this she ended the story.
Gojo had came across similar situations in his previous life. Megumi had lost both his mother and father at a young age. Yuji's story was much more complicated.
" Well, that's one tragic story. So, are you going to seek out the ones who had attacked and killed your mother and father. That seems to be the case to me. " said Gojo.
" About that, yes I definitely want to find out the ones who killed my parents as well as their reason for doing so. But, I will make up my mind after speaking to the people at the orphanage and other people at the village who know well about the incident. Because, till now I am not aware if there was any additional details to the incident. Since, it had occurred many years ago maybe many may not remember much about it. " said Grisella.
" Hmm " remarked Gojo " Then I wish your best luck at getting more information about the incident. However, you can rely on me since I am the strongest and almost everyone knows about me. "
Saying this Gojo smiled a little and looked back at Grisella. She was giving him a sharp glare. On, her face as he saw was a mixture of confusion, annoyance and contempt written all over. So he went silent. Then a thought crossed his mind. He hadn't yet checked up on his current stats. It has been a number of days since he checked. So he decided to use his appraisal skills to see his powers.
It was as follows :
Lapse blue technique : Level 9
Infinity : Level 8
Reverse red : Level 8
Six eyes : Level 8
Levitation : Level 5
Reversed cursed technique : Level 8
Appraisal eyes : Level 5
Master in hand to hand combat
Black flash ( chance 15 percent )
Special item
Large inventory bag
He was relieved to see that lapse blue had levelled up. So did reverse red since these were used again and again for a lot of occasions. Infinity was steadily levelling up. As for levitation, it seemed like he had to use it more frequently to level up.
On the other hand appraisal eyes were not of much use to him except for seeing his own stats. He could also view the properties of his items using this skill. He also had to use levitation more in order to increase it's Level.
Then, there was this large inventory bag. While in Geradin, Gojo had heard about them. They were very rare to come across. So it was a valuable magical item. Till now he didn't use it much. He used it to carry his own money. In the future he may use it to carry any magical items he acquired.
Soon, the town of Alaman came into view. Since, it was a border town, it was surrounded by walls higher than the usual walls that surrounded towns. Also there was a small garrison stationed in each of the border towns.
Not far away, a little over two miles south was the border of the Olwin Empire. That area was thickly forested often monsters use to cross borders going to either side. Gojo waited to see what new adventure awaited for him in the town as the horse cart rolled into the town.